California's Chinese Heritage -- A Legacy of Places
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Descriptions below from: "California's Chinese Heritage: A
Legacy of
Places." Thomas A. McDannold, Heritage West Books, Stockton, CA,
2000,
207 pp.
Madera County
Borden Chinatown
Borden Chinatown began with about
1,500 Chinese who arrived in the
community
of Borden in the 1870s. Most were railroad laborers. Borden
Chinatown
started to decline when a great number of Chinese left ot build a flume
near
the town of Madera. By the mid-twentieth century, only a few
Chinese
remained, mostly of Fayuan origin. Reference: Bulletin
1992:
2.
Madera Chinatown
Madera Chinatown, town of Madera,
became a reality when many CHinese
laborers
relocated from Borden Chinatown. The move was prompted by the
need
for laborers for the construction of a flume that was 54 miles long an
dused
to bring logs down from the Sierras. Reference: Bulletin 1992: 2.
Mariposa County
Coulterville Chinatown
Coulterville Chinatown was located
on the upper end of Main Street in
Coulterville,
and is presently ounded by Main Street, Kow Street, and Highway
J20.
Dating back to the early 1850s, the Chinese who lived there
comprised
20 percent of the total population (1,000 Chinese outof 5,000
non-Chinese).
Reference: Nadeau 1992: 129.
Sun Family House
The Sun Family House was built
around 1903 at the corner of Kow Street
and
Highway J20 in Coulterville. Chinatown in the community of
Coulterville.
One of the last three buildings in Coulterville Chinatown, it was
the
residence of Sun Kow, the laswt owner of the Sun Sun Wo General Store.
Reference:
Office of Historic Preservation 1982b.
Sun Sun Wo General Store
Built with adobe bricks in 1851, the
store was at the upper end of Main
Street
within Coulterville Chinatown in the community of Coulterville.
It
represents those that served the Chinese who worked in the mines, on
the
ranches and businesses of Yosemite Valley. Referenvce: Lew
1984
6.
Kow Street
Kow Street in the community of Coulterville, was named in honor of Sun
Kow,
a well-known local businessman. The street forms the northeast
border
of Coulterville Chinatown. Reference: Office of
Historic
Preservation 1982b.
Sacramento County
Sacramento Chinatown
Sacramento Chinatown was a viable
community as early as 1852.
It was located on I Street between FIfth Street and SIxth Street in the
City of Sacramento but was destroyed by fire in 1854. Rebuilt, it
was again destroyed by fire. Once more rebuilt in 1855,
Sacramento
Chinatown expanded to the south side of Istreet. By the 1870s,
its
center was Channel Street. The people of Sacramento Chinatown
helped
the movement of goods and workers to the gold fields of both northern
California
and the western Sierra Nevada Mountains. Everntualy falling into
disrepair, the area underwent redevelopment. Reference:
Praetzellis
and Praezellis 1982: 16-28; Wells 1962.
Paintersville Chinatown
Paintersville CHinatown was on the
east band of the Sacramento River
between
the communities of Courtland and Vorden. Its population increased
in
1885 when Elliott Chinatown burned during the same year.
Rdference:
Arrelola 1975: 10.
Vorden Chinatown
Located between Paintersville and
Locke on the east side of the
Sacramento
RIver, Vorden Chinatown was within the cummunity of Vorden. Its
Chineseresidents
were agricultural workers. Vorden itself was a small trading and
shipping center. Reference: Arreola 1975: 10;
Thompson
1957: 416.
Paintersville Chinatown
Paintersville Chinatown was on the
easy bank of the Sacramento River
between the cummunities of Courtland and Vordne. Its population
increased
in 1885 when Elliott Chinatown burned during the same year.
Reference:
Arreola 1975: 10.
Courtland Chinatown
Courtland Chinatown, like the
community of Courtland, was a center of
activity for the Sacramento River fruit growing area. Residents
were mostly
Chungshanese from Kwangton Province in China. Plagued by fires,
Courtland
Chinatown's fourth fire in 1930 destroyed most of it. After this
final fire,
the landowner refused to renew the land lease, resulting in many
residents
relocating to Locke or Walnut Grove Chinatown. Eventually,
Courtland Chinatown
land was purchased by Lincoln Chan, becoming part of the Lincoln Chan
Ranch.
Reference: Chu 1970: 27-28; Leung 1984: 24-55; Yip
1971: 57.
Locke Chinatown
Locke is the only complete town in
the state that was planned and built
by Chinese. During its prime, it had more than 600 residents and
its
own post office. However, the Chinese only leased the land.
The
town's origin lies int he 1915 burning of nearby Walnut Grove
Chinatown.
Lee Bing and others of Walnut Grove deciced to move upriver and
form
their own community in an area where two other Chiense had established
a
saloon, gaming hall and boarding house. After gaining permission
for
construction from the land owner, it took one year for the streets to
be
laid out and building erected. It was essentially built in its
entirety
by 1927 and little changed today. The town was named after George
Locke,
the land owner. When the word Locke is spokien with Chungshan
dialect
pronunciation, the dialect spoken by its residents, Locke sounds like
"lock
kee" and means "happy living." The town in on the National
Register
of HIstoric Places and has been designated as a National Historic
Landmark.
Reference: Gillenkirk and Motlow 1987: 12-23; Leung
1984:
28-36; MacDonald-Ooms 1976.
Walnut Grove Chinatown
The town of Walnut Grove dates to
the early 1850s, spreading west
across
the Sacramento River by the late 1880s. The Chinese occupied the
older east side, forming the Walnut Grove Chinatown. Its
residents
from the Sze Yup District of China tended to work the field crops with
Chungshanese employed in its orchards. By 1900, Walnut Grove
Chinatown
was in a state of decline. However, the advent of asparagus
cultivation
provided new jobs, periodically prompting many migrant workers to swell
the population. A fire in 1915 destroyed 80 buildings and
prompted
the Chungsanese to relocate to Locke. The fire of 1937, possibly
arson, destroyed a three block section of Walnut Grove Chinatown,
displacing
more than 500 people. Rebuilding quickly took place, primarily in
an Art Moderne/Modernistic style with features typically Chinese in
character
and style. As a result, Walnut Grove is considered to be the last
Chinatown established in the delta region and the only one with its
distinctive
streetscape. It has been nominated to the National Register of
HIstoric
Places asw the Walnut Grove Chinese American Historic District/
Reference:
Chu: 1970: 28, 32, 33; Leung 1984: 18-23; Office of Historic
Preservation
1990b, 1980b; Yip 1971: 53.
Isleton Asian American Historic District
Isleton's origin was prompted by the
settlement of CHinese laborers
who, in
the 1870s, built the levees and developed the farmlands that
characterize the region. BY 1900, asparagus was a significant
crop and the decreasing number of Chinese workers was augmented by
Japanese. The Japanese took up residence in Isleton Chinatown,
with F Street as a rather clear boundary between the two groups.
A fire in 1926 destroyed much of the district with it built in
the architectural style of the time: false front commercial
structures made of brick and wood frame buildings covered with stucco
or pressed
tin. F Street remained the boundary between the Chinese and
Japanese
sections. Isleton Asian American Historic District was identified
in
March 1991 and entered into the National Register of Historic Places.
Reference:
Bulletin 1992: 2; Chu 1970: 33; Leung 1984: 17.
Rio Vista Chinatown
Rio Vista Chinatown was evident by
1878 and consisted of six houses
located on Front Street within the town of Rio Vista. The failure
of the asparagus crop between 1910-1920 marked the end of Rio Vista
Chinatown.
Reference: Leung 1984: 16-17.
References:
Arreola, Daniel D. 1975. "The
Chinese Role in the Making of the
Early Cultural Landscape of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta." California Geographer: 1-15.
Bulletin of the
Chinese Historical
Society of America.
1992. May: 2.
Chu, George. 1970.
"Chinatowns in the Delta: The
Chinese
in the Sacramento9-San Joaquin Delta, 1879-1960." California Historical
Society Quarterly.
March: 21-37.
Gillenkirk, Jeff and James Motlow.
1987. Bitter Melon. Berkeley:
Heyday Books.
Leung, Peter C. Y. 1984. One
Day, One Dollar: Locke, California and the Chinese Farming
Experience in the Sacramento Delta. El Cerrito:
Chinese/Chinese American History Project.
MacDonald-Ooms, Sally. 1976.
"A Touch of Chungshan." California Living
Magazine.
February 22.
MacDannold, Thomas A. 1998.
"Building a Railroad Through the San
Joaquin Valley." Gum Saan Journal. December: 12-13.
Thompson, John. 1957.
"The Settlement Geography of the
Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, California." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford
University.
Yip, Christopher Lee. 1971.
"Locke, California, and the
Chinese
American." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California Berkeley.
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